Rebellion, a common thread running through Congress’s Thorat and Tambe families

The surprise move of Congress MLC Sudhir Tambe, a close relative of staunch Congressman and former Maharashtra minister Balasaheb Thorat, to drop out of the upcoming Legislative Council polls in the state and field his son instead may have surprised some people, but political rebellion is quite common in the families of both the leaders.

Earlier on Thursday, Sudhir Tambe, official Congress candidate for the biennial elections to the Upper House, announced withdrawal from the race and said his son Satyajit will be in the fray from the constituency currently represented by him. Satyajit Tambe, the state Youth Congress president, subsequently filed his nomination as an independent.

Elections to graduates’ and teachers’ constituencies of the Council will be held on January 30 and Thursday was the last day for filing nominations.

Sudhir Tambe, brother-in-law of former state Congress president Thorat, has been representing the Nashik Division Graduates’ constituency in the Upper House of the legislature for the last three terms (18 years) and was renominated by the party for a fresh term.

The Thorats not only built their political career from Sangamner tehsil of Ahmednagar district in western Maharashtra, but set up several educational institutes, colleges, including one for engineering, sugar mills and other cooperative societies under the brand name ‘Amrutwahini’, to maintain their dominance over the region.

He is currently the leader of the party in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, while Sudhir Tambe is his counterpart in the Legislative Council.

Sudhir Tambe’s political career also started in a similar way, when he rebelled in 2007 against the then-Congress candidate Nitin Thakur in bypoll to the Nashik division graduates’ constituency and won. He later came back to the Congress and won two more Council elections from the seat.